Member Rating

Compare Prices on Celebrity Equinox Eastern Caribbean Cruises

Equinox Ultimate Caribbean

Sail Date:
January 2014

Destination:
Eastern Caribbean

Embarkation:
Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades)

Overall, this was one of the best cruises I have taken because it was sheer relaxation! We had no need to get up early every morning and tour with the hoardes on mass transit. over the years, we have visited most every island several times and have stayed on St. Maarten for 2 weeks previous to this sailing so we do not feel compelled to do anything! And that, coupled with the beautiful ship experience with great stateroom attendants and specialty dining made us feel like we were in heaven! We loved enjoying our time together reading and relaxing. My husband could go to the casino when he wanted and I could go shopping in the stores on board. Celebrity's cleanliness and the service on board seemed exceptional out fo the 5 previous Celebrity cruises we have been on in the past.

Now the bad part- what has happened to the main dining room????? Now in order to have an excellent meal onboard the ship, we have to book specialty dining. I did not like the meal choices in the main More
dining room beginning with the worst veal chop I have ever had in my life. We had booked a 5 dining package pre-cruise in anticipation of the downward spiral on board celebrity in the dining experience. I was EXTREMELY disappointed in room service which arrived with cold toast every am. The onboard cheeses are no more- forget having Brie in the afternoon. The only Brie I had was in the cheese course at Murano. One thing Celebrity could do is allow us to order it on the room service menu for late afternoon wine and cheese on our balcony. I am not sure where Celebrity is going with this beverage package that has undrinkable wine even in the "premium" package. These packages are quite expensive and then you have to order wine by the bottle with dinner to have something that is beyond grocery store $20/bottle. Corkage at $25 per bottle is among the highest on the sea but still a bargain when you look at the prices on the wine list. I expect to pay double what a good wine store charges me but 3-3.5X the price, I feel like I am being robbed. Celebrity really needs to decide what sort of passenger they are catering to. I don't need to sit and drink premium liquor all day long (nor do i want to), but the premium package only pays off for those sorts of drinkers, not those of us who would like to pair a great wine with each course. For now, I will skip the cocktails and pay for corkage.

Specialty dining was really great. Tuscan has perfect filet mignons every time I have ordered one there. Murano's cheeses are delightful and Silk was a pleasant surprise because I had read so many bad reviews. I loved the sushi. The 5 dinner packages are great with 30% savings if paid for ahead of your cruise. We also got 20% off the first night in Murano after we boarded the ship. If Celebirty is going the way of all specialty dining- just increase the prices for the cruises and feed us better meals in the main dining room and give us back our artisan cheeses somewhere on board. In 1992, when my husband and I took our first cruise, it was Celebrity. The food was over the top wonderful. I ate so much I couldn't fit into my short evening gown on the final night. I would love to see Celebirty return to its heritage of wonderful food. the impeccable service was absolutely like what we had in 1992. Please, CELEBRITY, return to your culinary roots as well! Less

Compare Prices on Celebrity Equinox Eastern Caribbean Cruises

Cabin review: Celebrity Equinox 1174

We booked a "last minute" getaway and as a result received no perks. The cabin was nice and really there is any difference between c1-c3 or even aqua class for that matter except placement. I loved the aft cabin- less motion than front of ship

Port and Shore Excursions

Beach Break

One of my favorite islands. We went off to a beach (Accra) for the day and enjoyed a lovely beach day. Wow I guess we sound boring reading this review but this was our 5th time to Barbados and we love the pink sand beaches- there are so many of them that we just wanted an full day of beach. It was one of the highlights of our trip. For $20 RT we had a great time and a great taxi driver by the name of BArry who was there to pick us up at the appointed time. There was a constant flow of taxis anyway if he had not showed up.

This is a beautiful island. My husband and I elected to go to one of the few black sand beaches and park ourselves for the afternoon. The food was dictated by the taxi driver who steered us to "his section" of the beach. Later we saw all of the taxi drivers eating at the restaurant while they waited to take us back to the beach (at that same lame restaurant). Let's face it, Caribbean on island food is not very good and that is why cruises are so appealing! The island had a lot of nature tours offered by the ship and many on trip adviser. I had a very hard time getting anyone to email me back but if it hadn't been so last minute I would have loved a nice interior private tour. the beach was nice and 2 chairs and umbrella cost 12.50 for the day

The tour was nice, not great and we did not go to one of the main places we thought we were going because the owner of the plantation did not want us there that day. Our driver said nothing about it until someone asked if we were going there and then he told us no. We took the ferry over to Nevis form St. Kitts where our ship had docked for the day. We spent the rest of the time in a van. We went to a beach restaurant called "lime" that had unimpressive food, rum punch, and then off to the lovely beach which actually was the best part of the day. I would not do this tour again. Instead I would take the ferry to the beach and skip the "tour" of the island/plantation.

Ok, so I thought I would shop for pearls in Phillipsburg. In truth, I don't trust most of the shops in Phillipsburg since I was ripped off several years ago for perfume that was not as bottled. I think since you can order internationally direct from Japan, etc, its not worth taking the risk that what you buy in St. Maarten (or anywhere else that is duty free) might be a knock off. The islands are no longer my place to buy jewels as it was 20 years ago.So, after a couple of frustrating hours of "negotiating" with pushy sales clerks asking me why I didn't buy their merchandise, I gave up and parked out front on the beach whereupon I had free internet and the ability to shop for pearls direct form the source thereby not wasting beach time in stores with obnoxious, pushy store clerks.

Sailing

Loved this sail all day long to St. John's and honeymoon beach. Our captain kept us out of foreboding weather and gave us an excellent BBQ's onboard lunch with homemade drinks that were great! Even a margarita which is unheard of on excursions. I am so tired of bad rum punch on ship's excursions that I always ask for water. This sail was great. No more than 6 people go on the jester and there is plenty of room for R&R on the boat. I love the fact that music was in the background, not the foreground and we met some great folks on the cruise as well. Honeymoon beach was stunning and not crowded because the hoards do not go there.